General Chat

And there was me thinking last night when I got kicked off....was it something I said?... :0( Joan

Yes Jeanette, that is nearer the truth - I was being generous! lol! Bev x

Every other day Bev? Wow you are lucky! lol. It's happening to me at least 2 to 3 times a day!

And as they say Bev, manners cost nothing. It would be nice if GR could actually notify us before, if they are updating or after these problems occur. Many thanks Heather

Aaarrrgghh!!!! After posting the last message I have had to leave the site altogether to get back to the board. I could move via my back bar but could do nothing on site. I give up, & going into town. Bye for now Vivienne

I have just spent 10 minutes with a 'This page cannot be found' while trying to reply to this thread! That sums it all up! Other sites such as Ancestry and Family Search do go down occasionally, but the difference is in the word 'occasionally'! I am sure I can honestly say that I have had either a 'This page cannot be displayed', a blank green screen, a blank white screen or a Happy Genes Error at least every other day for weeks!!! (And that is without the problem of the overall slowness of the site!) I do not feel this is reasonable, particularly as we are not even given the courtesy of an explanation. Bev x

Good Morning All, CB & Gwynne you always put everything so clearly & really hit the nail on the head. Paul, I can't make up my mind if you are playing devils advocate or not. I am very relieved to find that it was not just me having so much trouble last night but after the last lot of problems why oh why have GR not done something about telling us when they have a problem. After all we have just had a so called upgrade, surely while the programming side were working on the new tree, the tech team should have been working on the function of the site. Living alone I love spending my evenings on here with people who have the same interests but on evenings like last I just want to throw the mouse through the screen!!!! Vivienne

No disrespect intended Elaine, if they cant fix the problem , then they should say so. either by a board posting or by replying to messages. THEY DONT DO EITHER!. A circular situation here- We have problems with the site. We message GR. Nothing. - Probably because GR have so many complaints to answer everybody individually. Up goes a thread asking are we alone in our problem. - No reply usually is 'Message GR, dont winge' - done that How can we get it resolved? It seems we cant I have paid my money and expect to get what I pay for, Tecso refunded my money on a kettle this morning because it was faulty. GR wouldn't . Tesco didn't tell me to put up with it, because it warms the water most of the time - it isn't good enough. I wont just pack up and go either - why should I? I have paid for the benifits of full membership and expect to get them! Jess x I have to go to work now, be back later, not avoiding anything or anyone

Actually Ancestry has had some problems of late (according to tips board over the last week or so) It shows that even the biggest of sites have problems...and the subs ar far more expensive too.. (something to moan at if you lose a day or so) If people find the free sites better, then go and use them by all means, but ask yourself if you are so fed up with GR why do you stay ?............ would you miss it if you went ?.....................Would you get out of these free sites the amount of support, fun and contacts from them? As for the late time Gr was down, remember people live in all kinds of time zones, and often our Australian members etc come on during twilight hours. And yes I do love Genes No I do not work for Genes I do not get paid by Genes. I am very happy that my few pence subs a day I pay covers the service I recieve. If I have a problem, and to be fair no one knows what problems I have encountered on here tech wise. I have contacted the tech team. Not moaned about it on the board sounding like a worn out record. It may just be possible that GR knows by now problems which are happening, so carrying on with the same record wont get things done quicker. And Im sure if they could,if it was possible, they would have it all fixed in a moment, if anything to stop the constant moaning threads against genes that pop up all the time. Elaine x

Jean - I agree with every word you said. It is a democratic country still. This board is for general topics. If anyone dislikes a certain thread, then one does not need to add to it. This is the only site with which I have ever had such extensive problems. :-) Joy

Thank you Paul for the private message.You could have replied on here tho, If browsers are to be encouraged to join, they have to see that there is something worth joining.Those of us that have 'paid our dues' are all ready struggling with numbers such as they are and if volume of traffic is what is causing the problem ( I have no idea if it is....) then I dont want new members, because surely wont that will just dilute things even more? Jess * Maybe GR does have an explanation as to why the site fell over late last night. If they do, why don't they say?

Paul the occurence of the problems are increasing not decreasing, it has nothing to do with the traffic on the site as the occurences last night were between 11:10pmand 11:25pm then 11:50pm and 00:30am hardly rush hour is it? Ken

Why are we not allowed to moan about the inability of this site to cater for its paying members? Would the people who are always rushing to the defence of GR put up with paying for second rate goods anywhere else. Me thinks not. GR have known about this problem for several months now and have had plenty of time to sort it out. Hi-tech or not. I for one will go on moaning until GR get it right. Jean.

CB if that is the case then you of all people on here should understand and realise some of the difficulties and problems that occure on web sites. And that it can take longer for some of the problems to be sorted 100% Paul

There seem to be a handful of people on here who defend Genes to the hilt no matter what problems we have to put up with. I belong to other sites which are free, that have a lot more functionality than here and allow you to post links etc., this site is very basic considering the members on it. I quite often come on here after going on other sites and am always surprised at the service. It is only on here everything slooooows down to a snails pace, and I am on boradband, if I was still on dial up, quite frankly I wouldn't bother. I posted a thread last week re the Modest Millionaires - The Pankhursts. An article in Thursdays Mail. They seem reluctanct to spend their millions. As the article title suggests. But they have now employed a management company of 50 to 'manage' their little empire, perhaps a little more of the £160m worth of it could be spared to update and overhaul this site. After all we are paying for it.

Paul, Having been married for 30 years to an IT professional who is conversant with computer programming, I do realise that 'a click of the mouse' is not the panacea for this site's problems. Kindly acknowledge that some of us do possess intelligence beyond that of a gnat. CB >|<

Hi Paul, I doubt that most non-paying members will elect to become paid members. I browse all sorts of websites out of general interest but if I had to pay I wouldn't. I realise that all problems cannot be solved by mouse clicking but GR have had months to sort out most of the problems people gripe about. It isn't a question of one-off problems but ongoing difficulties. If the site was free I'd say nothing but I really don't think it's unreasonable to expect to get what I pay for. I expect this in every other area of life and GR is no different. If GR made an announcement when there was a specific problem, or responded to emails (as CB said) then there would be fewer moaning threads. It's not as though GR are a poor, struggling company just starting off in the cyber world is it? The only way these threads will stop is for GR to give us what we pay for. Gwynne

Sorry Paul your first paragraph isn't making a lot of sense to me.... It isn't as thought we have had the problems (and it seems to be the same problems) for an hour or two, or even a week or two...it's been ages. It doesn't seem to be geting better. Lets all encourage the browsers to be come full members... They can then join us in the inconvenience of the site falling over at will. Jess

if you stop all the none paying members from browsing the site could this not encourage more of the people browsing to become full payed up members thus enabling them to post making the problem worse. I'm sure that any problem that the site encouters Genes try to sort out asap,not all problems that occure can be sorted with a click of a mouse. Paul

I get fed up with the 'I'm all right, Jack!' attitude of members who appear never to experience problems in using this site, while others of us have constant difficulties with it. If we don't complain, neither GR, nor other members, will know the extent of the problems, and as GR appear to be too busy to acknowledge individual complaints most of the time (in my own experience and that of others), there's no other way of informing them. This is a board for discussion of 'General Topics', and the 'general' opinion seems to be that the site needs to be improved and that improvement needs to be sustained. If a few members are fortunate enough not to be inconvenienced, then lucky old them, but they shouldn't expect the rest of us to just sit and 'button it' when we have problems with the site. Most of them aren't shy of complaining when something else annoys them. CB >|<